Organizers of Friday the 13th in Port Dover are at a planning standstill as they await a report from Norfolk County staff.

Amie Ferris of the Port Dover Kinsmen Club, which along with the Port Dover Board of Trade oversees much of the popular motorcycle rally, appeared before Norfolk council last month with a few requests, the major one centring around vendor fees for the July rally.

The Kinsmen Club and board of trade stepped in to take on costs associated with the event after the folding of the PD13 organization a number of years ago. Since then the two groups have operated under a handshake agreement with the county that waived vendor fees for the sale of merchandise – similar to what takes place for official county events such as Art in the Park or Pumpkinfest.

With no formal agreement in place, the Kinsmen Club and board of trade was given a one-time exemption for the October 2017 event. Norfolk council was to receive a report that detailed the agreement and include suggestions as to how to proceed, but it's been delayed since October.

The next Friday the 13th rally will take place in April, however, organizers are hoping to have an agreement in place in time for the July event.

“We can not even begin the majority of planning for July, which is likely going to be the biggest event we have ever seen, because we don't know what our role is, what our costs are going to be, or what vendor fees may look like – that can't go on,” Ferris told council.

Ferris said under the existing agreement, the Kinsmen Club and board of trade were given a pass on vendor fees in exchange for covering county overtime and other expenses like setting up temporary washrooms and lighting within the town. She estimated those costs at $16,000-17,000 for the last four events.

Bill Cridland, Norfolk's general manager of community services, said the staff report has been delayed because of its complex nature and it crossing over many departments. He expects it to be presented in early April. If by chance the report isn't available, the current agreement will remain without vendor fees. In the past, vendors would only pay event organizers, who would then pay a one-time per event fee to the county.

Some longtime Friday the 13th vendors have taken a pass until the issue is resolved, Ferris said.

“We're losing revenue because these vendors aren't coming,” Ferris said in an interview Wednesday. “So if we were able to eliminate or even reduce the county permit fees ($550) drastically then we would see vendors return.”

Ferris points out that the report could result in more responsibilities being placed on an already busy organizing team, which would put the group in a bind.

“We've already started working on July, our guys are already organizing the washrooms, the lighting, all of that stuff ... we (would) either have to find more volunteers or re-look at how we're going to handle this because there's only so many of us to go around.”

Though they can wait until two weeks before an event to request a permit, the number of vendors applying to be part of July's rally is triple what organizers have received for April's rally, Ferris said. The gathering is expected to exceed the 102,000-105,000 people that attended in October.

“July is going to be incomparable to any other (rally), so to take two months to plan that event is asking a lot,” Ferris said.